Last night’s second episode of the sixth season of Sons of Anarchy, “One-One-Six,” saw Jax pile on the lies, as he continued to evolve into Clay. Tara dropped two HUGE bombshells, Juice continues to get the worst jobs, Lee Toric flashed some more crazy, and the show added two more to this season’s body count as the consequences to last week’s school shooting continue to grow. Kurt Sutter is showing nice restraint this season, slowly developing the plot, but not so slow that it’s taken any of the excitement out of the series.

Let’s get right into the episode.

Thanks for meeting, Hop — Let’s quickly start with Bobby Munson this week, who is still separated from the rest of SAMCRO, developing relationships with other SAMCRO loners. He needs four to create a Nomad Club. He’s almost there, adding Quinn (who helped him move his fridge last week) and a guy named Hopper, who is played by Steve Howey (who is awesome in Showtime’s Shamless). Bobby is also looking very forlorn, and there’s nothing teddy-bear sadder than the dejected look of Mark Boone Junior, except maybe the dejected look of Mandy Patinkin in Homeland.

“I’m going to rat out my son, give up my club, I’m going to look him in the eye first, tell him why.” — Clay managed to live another day. He has agreed, in principle, to turns state’s evidence for Lee Toric and enter witness protection. However, he won’t sign the agreement until he’s seen both his wife and son. He sees Gemma and lays a huge guilt trip on her, telling her that she was right all along and that he was a terrible bastard over the last six months. “I never loved anybody the way I loved you, Gemma. And I know you feel the same.” Gemma, despite the tears, is having none of it. “You don’t know sh*t about how I feel.”

Toric has not, however, managed to get Jax to visit Clay, so Clay has not officially signed off on his confession. With Toric faking Clay’s signature later in the episode, Toric has perhaps given Clay a reason NOT to turn state’s evidence and to eventually find a way to turn against Toric.

“Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.” — No matter, because Lee Toric — who dropped some Shakespeare this week, Sonnet 116 to be exact (which is why the episode’s title is “One-One Six”) — forged Clay’s signature (after a weird ritual where he banged the back of his hands on a table repeatedly). Toric spelled out his motivations, too. Basically, Otto killed his sister to avoid testifying against SAMCRO in the RICO trial, so Toric’s end game is to destroy SAMCRO by resurrecting the RICO charges (using Clay as his witness). He’s also working an angle with the district attorney (CCH Pounder) to tie SAMCRO to the gun the kid used to shoot up the school (resulting in 4 dead kids, and three injured).”

Here’s the thing about Donal Logue’s Lee Toric: He’s almost the most sympathetic character in the series right now. If it weren’t for the weird, inexplicable drug habit, the hand banging, the mirror f**cking, and some of the crazy that’s clearly stirring around his brain pan, I’d be rooting hardest for Toric. I like his motive: “I never gave a sh*t about justice. It was always about retribution for me. Hurting people who hurt people. That’s always been my endgame.”

Plus, after just one scene with C. Thomas Howell’s character, who is in the ATF, I want those two to go off and start their own buddy cop series together. I would watch the sh*t out of that.

One more thing about Toric: He arranged for a date with one of Nero’s escorts, and left his card, basically to alert Jax to the fact that he’s onto the club.

Having read no other comments I have to ask this: Why does Toric have carte blache over all law enforcement? He moves among many levels of law enforcement like he is a king but we all know that isn’t how it really works…oh he was a badass marshal? Had a great arrest rate? I’m sorry but any time I see him on screen it is so unbelievable I actually feel bad for the people trying to film those scenes.

I was under the impression that Toric was slamming his hands ’cause he had the shakes from not getting his smack fix. All while trying to forge Clay’s signature, them withdrawals would make his signature look like chicken scratch.
meh?

I can’t help but think that the whole “Jax wants out of guns but the Irish aren’t going to make it easy” storyline would be infinitely better if Jax had actually reacted to the school shooting as if it were something more than a business inconvenience. He has two young sons, surely this should have hit him pretty hard in the feels.

Jax is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad human being. I’ve found it harder and harder to root for him, but he just may have just sealed the deal on that. I’ve split my chips between “Boring” Bobby Elvis and Lee “Over the Top” Toric.

The scene between Gemma and Clay was incredibly tough emotionally, but nothing compared to having to watch Jax and Tara look positively miserable while having sex (don’t think it could be referred to as making love in this case!). I love Shakespeare’s 116 and thought it was spoken beautifully by Toric’s character. I also especially loved Toric’s laugh at Gemma’s calling him a “DICK!” and walking off! Galen should win IRA salesman of the year, and I’m glad they took out Arcadio and his worthless excuse for a mother/ol lady. I can only hope Nero, Tara, and/or Gemma gets through to Jax to stop him before his transformation into Clay is complete. Clay finding out about Toric’s forging his signature and using that against him would be one of those … “there are my boys!” moments!! I love SoA!!

So far I am not finding this seasons story arc all that interesting and the Toric character is becoming annoying. But I am interested in seeing what Bobby is able to do as a Nomad. That could be very interesting.

I agree with the arc so far, but I’m still holding out Toric becomes more, I don’t know how to say it, focused maybe? I like that they’re making him more fleshed out than last season, but I’d be fine if he were just a badass ex-marshall out for revenge, without all the psycho-aspects of the character. Either way, having Donal Logue on TV is a plus, even if he’s fucking a mirror or smashing his hands.

I for one really appreciate how the “Mexican gangsters” dress like Getty Image versions of “Mexican gangsters”. The beanie and plaid shirt buttoned up were nice touches. Kind of strange how all their shirts were so well ironed though.

the hot / cold outside thing has bothered me about this, and several other shows, for years. I know it’s not always hot in California, but judging by the sun shining throughout the majority of the series, why the fuck is Jax constantly wearing a hoodie, jeans, and a leather vest? Get some jort shorts bro (*I swear I’ll never say bro again*)

I mean, is there a black tshirt shortage? A damn wife beater seems more than appropriate….Hell you have ink rock no shirt just because. Oh, and safety first,ALWAYS with the helmet and driving glasses at night…

Nickleback fatality is the great parts of show, 18 wheeler tanker full of diarrhea, spilling everywhere is the rest of show, gotta take the good with the crap I guess [shrugs, makes mental note to improve metaphors]

(Since we’re all doing it, it being “Rowles’d”), SAMCRO is Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original. Only the Charming chapter/charter is SAMCRO. Bobby would just start a SoA Nomad chapter. There are no other SAMCROs, just various SoA chapters.

There’s SAMTAZ in Tuscon, Arizona and SAMBEL in Belfast, Ireland, but they aren’t SAMCRO.

OK, this has been bugging me since last season but last night’s “Previously On” portion reminded me:

Gemma is all pissed off because Tara wants to move the kids to Oregon. Which is apparently too far away from Northern Fuckin California for Grandma Gemma to visit. Putting aside the fact that California and Oregon are neighboring states, albeit big states, every time SAMCRO needs reinforcements Jax flares his nostrils and growls ‘Get Tacoma down here NOW” at some poor underling, and two scenes later there’s a bunch of extras wearing Sons gear with Tacoma patches in the clubhouse. Tacoma is in fucking Washington, which is on top of Oregon. So if the Sons apparently have some method of travel where it takes 4 hours to get from Tacoma to whereever-the-fuck-Charming is in CA, why doens’t one of them clue Gemma in to the alternative-universe fact that Orgeon is at best a 20 minute commute?

Well, she can’t half-ass watch the kids, then have some biker take over babysitting while she burns down a few ciggys and gets finger banged by Nero on a hour drive…… This now really bothers me, its onthe SOA WTF shit list…. *The list is very very very very very very long now*

I had a thought of tara leaving either season or the next, but i saw Gemma has a new show coming out so i can see her getting done with and somehow being that retired cop, and his character continue on to the next.

“Welcome to Charming, the shittiest place on Earth”. Seriously, I’d rather live Under the Dome.

– Jax needs to mix up his sex game, obviously missionary is making his lady super sad, even Otto gets some Doggie
– I miss Opie, this crew needs to bulk up. Chibs and Happy can only carry you so far.
– What the fuck do the SONS spend money on, they have shitty stuff in a shitty town, those gun runs should be bringing in silly cash, but what do they use it for? Upgrade fellas.
– A Nomad gang of 4 lead by a fat fuck? Jesus, that’s pathetic.
– Tara’s body is smoking, I really forgot how nice she’s put together.
– The “Next episode of S.O.A.” 15 sec clip is the highlight of the entire episode sometimes, most of the time.
– They really need to show Clay in at least ONE goddamn prison fight, just one.

I don’t get those same pants rising feelings from Tara. I think because she’s so annoying dumb for being a surgeon that I just hate everything about her. So you’re this super talented surgeon who gets recruited all over the country, yet you move back to a shitty town and hook up with a dirty biker who brings your entire life down, and it takes you this long to realize you should probably leave? I used to root for her to take the kids and bail, but at this point, I with instead of her hand getting slammed in a van door it was her neck. /rant.

Tara’s extremely attractive but also extremely stupid. This season she’s showing signs of snapping out of it, (and it only took a shattered arm, a shot to the gut from her mother-in-law, witnessing a brutal murder and getting arrested for said conspiracy related to said murder and losing her neat-o Oregon surgeon’s position offer to snap her out of it!), so maybe her character will start becoming more interesting but right now given the common sense she’s displayed I’d hesitate to let her operate on my kid’s hamster.

@poon and hortaio.. Seriously, she’s an idiot. Asking her boss about a blood test for her possible pregnancy? Could she not just pick up an EPT? At least when she said blood test I was hoping she’d have some incurable disease, not just pregnancy.

Allow me to take a moment to say that if Sutter steadily building the tension between Jax and Chibs results in Chibs’ death… I AM FUCKING OUT. I stayed on off after Opie, but if Chibs is gone too, peace out SOA.

I wouldn’t get too anxious Dissident. Clay’s days have been numbered since at least Season 2 and he shows no signs of going away. If Sutter uses the same logic with Tig he should make it to the end of this show and last three more season on the spin-off about Bobby’s Nomad adventures.

Oh good, I was wondering when the Breaking Bad hyperbole would spill over into other TV show discussions. Jesus, this is just ruining BB for me. THA BEST THING EVAR! shtick gets old fast, and it’s pretty much accelerating to critical mass thanks to the series finale approaching.

I think the inexplicable drug addict angle of Torric is to set up SAMCRO with yet another out from the RICO charges (pretty sure it comes out that a retired heroin addict is behind the scenes orchestrating all the evidence against the club that it will become inadmissable).

What I took from the conversation with teh Irish is that they were in no way shape or form allowing SAMCRO to pull out of their business relationship. “We worked too damn hard to let Northern cali gun running be taken over by the Chinese” or something along those lines. Also, I think the kings will be happy that you are doubling their profits insinuates that they will sell guns to the people Jax was going to pass off on them as well as the club. Did I miss something here?

Well, he isn’t going to get any help from any friends of Samcro, and he was the leader of a bike gang that had a huge fight with the Nazis just a few seasons ago so he is going to have trouble with alliances.

I agree. The overall show now feels like we’re dealing with a bunch of amateurs and scrubs. The first three seasons, the club was so on point, TCB at every angle. Now they are just a bunch of laughably sloppy clowns. It’s a weird dynamic switch in the show. I hope Jax realizes this when he talks to Clay in prison next episode. Should be a cinematically sweet conversation.

Two weeks in a row, the fade-to-black scene was Jax having sex. Is this a pattern?

C’mon man, how could you possibly miss the fact that the “Jax plowing a chick fade-to-black” the last two weeks is an unmistakeable callback to “The Push” (season 3, episode 6) when Jax gets it on with Ima in an attempt to break things off with Tara and keep her away from club life? It’s obvious that every time he has Tara-related issues that seriously jeopardize their relationship the answer is for Jax to close out the episode thrusting away on some chick. Sutter is a clever genius!

One, I assume Toric’s briefcase is loaded with compromising photos of every police captain, ATF, FBI, TSA and CIA agent within a 30 mile radius of Charming. It boggles me the way a forcibly retired US Marshall is a welcomed presence in every law enforcement-related scene.

Speaking of scenes, can someone please explain to Sutter that there are ways to transition your characters between locations that don’t involve the end of the current conversation being interrupted? I want to make a drinking game out of it, finish your glass every time someone urgently interjects into Jax or Gemma’s conversation, but I don’t want to end up in the ER.

I think everyone in the prison is sick of Otto and probably don’t need much presuading to allow bad things to happen. But yeah, the rest of it is a bit of a stretch. Just like pretty much everything else on the show.

That disappointed me. Honestly, this show is not like Breaking Bad where an hour feels like 25 min. I felt every bit of last night’s pacing, and while I appreciate the slow story development, I resent taking 90 min. to do it each week. That’s a cop out.

I was surprised, and not in a good way, to discovery that I was going to be up until 11:30 watching this show. I really hope that ends soon. I’m basically just wathcing out of morbid curiousity at this point anyway. At 90 minutes I’m going to get a lot less curious.

um…I hate to be THAT guy, but I want only bad things to happen to the Sons. A kid shoots up a school so they kill his mom. Nobody for a second says “man, I feel bad that one of our guns killed all those kids”…I want them to die so hard.

Yeah, you’re right David. An organization like Sons that is so much about family and have lost children and family members of their own, you would think that a school shooting in their town, using their hardware no less, would have had more of an impact on them. But maybe that’s part of this being Season 6, the characters’ souls have hardened because of the stuff they’ve gone through and the losses they’ve had to take. A few kids dying in school doesn’t have the same punch as say, losing out on money to be made from selling the same guns that killed aforesaid schoolchildren.

Did I miss something or was Jax telling Tara that the escort business is nasty but legal. I mean, those girls are fucking the customers right? I know California is pretty liberal but I’m pretty sure they haven’t legalized prostitution right?

@Paul, I suppose he could have been. His low, growly voice, while undoubtedly sexy, makes him hard to understand. Still, that would be the porno business that just last week had him invading the docks and shooting 3-4 Irano-Persians correct? Hardly seems legit.

The vast majority of the characters on this show have become so unlikable that I look forward to horrible things happening to all of them except Chibs, Filthy Phil(thanks to his appearance on Raising Hope), and Chucky.

I’ve heard some complaints that the school shooting isn’t getting the right amount of attention or gravitas and is just a plot device but it seems like it’s going to be a cloud that hangs over the club and ultimately destroys it.

Also, I’m sure the forcibly-retired ex-Federal Marshal with a heroin habit and yen for prostitutes who will cut corners for revenge will in no way compromise the case against SAMCRO.

I assumed they were going to load her up with a fatal dose of heroin and stage it like a suicide, which would have raised much less suspicion than when her body shows up in an unmarked grave next to a cholo and covered with ligature marks and gunpowder residue.

I doubt Sutter thought it out this far, but I believe that legally the police cannot be on her property. They can monitor who comes and goes from the street but cannot just set up shop in her front and back yard without a warrant/court order.

“We need to keep an eye on this lady, to make sure she doesn’t do something stupid after her kid shot up a school.”
“Hey there’s an alley out back, should we keep an eye on that too?”
“Hell no, if somethings going down, it’s definitely gonna be via the front entrance with the cops standing next to it, get your shit together rook.”

@Paul: IANAL either but I’m pretty sure that since the 11 year old kid who just shot up his school with a KG-9 lived there too, the police could do just about anything they wanted in that house, including… oh, I dunno, taping it off as part of their investigation.

Why exactly would the police be watching her anyway? The kid’s dead, they’ve presumably got the gun and searched the house, (miraculously not finding her heroin, and given the Notebook ‘O Death the kid left there’s no reason to think Mom put him up to it. did they think the sons or the Biz Lats were going to show up with an new gun to replace the other one?

@Paul and Pete: Front of the house is a street, back of the house is an alley (which we saw the guys walking down before hopping the fence to the back yard). I think legally the cops can set up shop in both places and have a pretty good watch of the whole house.